Windows .NET API / Windows 7 / Bluetooth communication with Intel Curie Arduino / Genuino 101

Question

I'm trying to communicate with an Intel Curie Arduino / Genuino 101 ( https://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/Arduino101 ). It has on-board a BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) radio.

The sample application for the Arduino works great with my iPhone ( https://www.arduino.cc/en/Reference/CurieBLE ). However, getting Windows 7 to speak to the Arduino / Genuino using C#/.NET, is not so easy for me.

This reference implies that perhaps the chipset (Nordic 51822) only supports BLE and not Bluetooth "classic" ( https://www.arduino.cc/en/Reference/CurieBLE ).

• Does this mean that a Windows 7 computer cannot "talk" to an Arduino using Bluetooth on a stock board?
• Does this force me to an HC-05, -06, -07 to the board (or some other additional radio)?
• Is this really impetus to use a WiFi radio on the Arduino rather than Bluetooth (because Windows 7 / .NET should support WiFi communication to the Arduino).

Answer 1

Microsoft Bluetooth stack on Windows 7 does not support BLE. You have to use third party Bluetooth drivers in this case. BlueSoleil works good. On Windows 8 and above you can use Microsoft Bluetooth stack to work with BLE devices.

However each Bluetooth drivers have own API. I am not sure about free 32feet (if it support BLE and on which platforms) but Bluetooth Framework supports BLE on any Windows platforms (on Win XP, Vista, 7 with BlueSoleil Bluetooth drivers; on Win 8 and above with MS drivers as well). Both libraries support Classic Bluetooth as well.

Of course in any case you have to use Bluetooth 4.0 (or above) dongle (hardware) on your PC side.

Should you have any question about BLE you can ping me direct somehow (email, skype, PM).

Answer 2

I struggles with BLE for a while on Windows 7 and gave up. Third party solutions and debugging the Arduino Genuino 101 proved to be more time consuming that working on the HC-05.

Using the HC-05, I learned that few people connect it to the 101. As a consequence, lessons like:

1. Arduino 101 has 3.3V logic levels and not 5.0 V logic levels
2. Serial input from the Arduino console must be treated different on the Arduino 101

were not readily available in search engines (see https://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/Arduino101 ).

After digging in with an oscilloscope, everything is working much better with the HC-05 than with BLE!